Auro: Four Stars, One New Chef, Zero Drama

Auro kept its star in 2026, its fourth in a row and its first under Executive Chef Evan Neumann, when the Michelin Guide California results were announced in San Diego on June 24. The inspectors had returned within months of his arrival. The star stayed. In a valley where chef transitions so often cost a dining room its momentum, that is the whole story.

The backstory is unusually clean. Garcia opened Auro in 2022; the restaurant won its first star within eight months. When he later stepped away, Four Seasons moved slowly on a successor before handing the pass to Neumann, who joined in April. Sous chefs Lika Nevarez and Luis Patino held the kitchen through the transition, and the brigade never lost its shape.

““You inherit a kitchen. You don’t inherit a Michelin star.” Evan Neumann, Executive Chef of Auro”

The cooking now has a sharper point of view: contemporary American cuisine built on French technique with a Japanese influence, Napa Valley ingredients leading every plate. The seven-course tasting menu, with wine pairings drawn from a cellar of more than 750 labels, runs from dishes like Hokkaido scallop under chamomile and Japanese curry sabayon to dry-aged wagyu finished with Tenbrink Farms squash blossom. The room itself is pure Calistoga hush: low light, clean lines, and a view of the kitchen doing its quiet work.

Auro sits within the Four Seasons Resort and Residences Napa Valley, at 400 Silverado Trail in Calistoga, and serves dinner Wednesday through Saturday, 5:00 to 9:00 pm. Book well ahead: since the June announcement, the room has been one of the valley’s tougher tables.

Details verified at time of publication.

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